


A Matter of Trust, Ch1-Pt2

by Dressari



Series: Distant Worlds [2]
Category: Creators Keepers of Mana, Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, Furry (Fandom)
Genre: CKoM - Freeform, Cat, DMFA - Freeform, Elements, Feline, Furrae, Human, Mana - Freeform, Multi, Other, creator, cubi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 07:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11573595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dressari/pseuds/Dressari
Summary: The next part of the flagship story that set off this series. After her encounter with some strange beasts in the mountains Destania comes face to face with what she thinks or appears to be a human. What she finds out is something perhaps very different. Is this strange looking Being a potential threat... or a possible friend?CKoM is owned by myselfDMFA and it's characters are owned by Amber Williams.Artwork is by TwoCueStory editing done by Caine





	A Matter of Trust, Ch1-Pt2

[Destania encountering Adrian for the first time.](https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1398864&page=2#pictop)

 

Some time passed as Destania made her way through the mountain range again, given the dangerous creatures she encountered on the way here, flying out would only make her a target. Still, if her approach was as easy as her exit was shaping up to be, then she had nothing to worry about.

The agile Cubi grabbed on to a ledge and hoisted herself up onto the top, climbing her way back out of the mountains using the same path she did before to avoid getting lost. She brushed the dust off her arm. _Hopefully Biggs managed to secure what we needed from Zinvth,_ she wondered while approaching another rock face much taller than herself. Clenching her hands a few time she prepared to scale the side of the cliff, letting out a sigh, still annoyed by the defeat of that stupid locker.

A loud rumble suddenly rocked through the mountains echoing off the walls and causing some of the lose rocks to stir. An earthquake? ...no, the light pitter patter of rain started to drop, coming down at a quiet pace. This normally wouldn't be a problem, alas the encroaching clouds above only started to darken. A storm was about to hit, how bad? Destania had no idea, but cursed quietly, damning her change of luck.

Putting some emphasis on speed and with the use of her wing tendrils she leapt onto the wall and scaled it with all of her strength, clearing half the distance in just seconds. Destania kept her mind on some positive thoughts, pleasant necessities, her favourite wine, her husband... her children. Everything she did with her life since the Academy was for their benefit, and her own. It had to be done... it was necessary.

Nearing the top of the cliff face, her wing tendrils latched onto the edge and with single pull brought the rest of herself to head level with the edge, gripping it with her hands. At least she wasn't about to be flooded out thanks to the valley below, but getting to cover was going to be the issue as the pace of the rain started to increase, becoming a light drizzle now.

A low pitched but very angry growl suddenly rumbled in her ears, and it wasn't another crack of thunder in the background. Destania's eyes whipped up to the noise, and her nose almost came to touch that of one of the creatures she had avoided earlier. It snarled at her before it lashed out with its maw open wide. Fortunately her own lightning reflexes kicked in quicker and she leant back, expecting it to aim straight for her head. Although it had missed, the Cubi lost some of her footing and in the panic her right arm instinctively tried to stabilize her.

The sting of pain entrapped itself around her arm as the Creature had bit down onto the flailing limb. Although used to feeling pain the teeth sank in deep and were enough to cause Destania to grunt before turning the unpleasant feeling into anger. Long sharp claws sprang from her fingertips and with a swipe she carved off a good deal of flesh from the beasts face. But rather than cause it to release her, it only clamped harder in its pained whine, and pulled the dangling Cubi up onto the ledge.

Thudding against the ground and tossed around a little as the creature flailed, Destania hopped to her feet and in a crouched stance she pulled back on the creatures maw and darted all of her tendrils to the head. The ends of her tendrils had formed smaller mouth like shapes, a unique trait to clans that still have their tri-wing leaders. Each of the small jaws bit onto the creature's face, jaw and ears, and in one tug they pulled away, ripping off parts of its face while snapping the maw open, releasing her arm.

With a roar, Destania slammed her foot into the creatures jaw, a crack broke the air and sent the creature away to the ground with a skid. Not waiting for it to recover, she twirled her tendrils into a large baton and swatted it from the ground and hurling into a nearby cliff face. Loud shuffling disturbed the ground nearby followed by another growl, a second creature padded from around some fallen rocks.

The rain fell harder now, soaking the ground, her clothing and her wings. Clutching her arm to stem the blood she turned and faced the Creature with a determined growl. Escape was less of an option as flying in a storm would certainly get her killed.

And there was no way in hell was she about to be claimed by death today.

Snapping out her tendrils she sharpened the edges into formidable cutting scythes. The creature waited, snapping its maw in an effort to appear more intimidating. Perhaps the sight of the weapons gave the beast enough pause to think twice. It wasn't until shuffling disturbed the ground at such a close pace was her vision distracted to the left, narrowly she avoided the prior creature making an attack, pouncing upon her with its front claws.

They were working as a pack!

As soon as the creature landed Destania hunched low and swiped lower with her bladed weapons, cutting away at flesh and bone of the attacking creature. It let out a high pitched yelp and tumbled to the ground, whining loudly. A quick step to the side and the cubi avoided an attack from its friend. Thunder cracked overhead as the rain hit with a pouring drench, the drops slamming off the rocks with a heavy pound. Spinning her body her tendrils followed the momentum, like a roundhouse kick it cut away at the second creature with ease, causing it to roll over from the pain.

Bringing the tendrils up, Destania aimed to end its life while it was disabled, the scythes bent and twisted into spines and aimed down. Alas just as she was about to strike, she let out a pained yell as a sharp stab clamped onto a leg and pulled the Cubi from her feet and slammed into the ground. Flipping over to view her attacker, a third creature had made itself present and had latched onto her right leg. It dragged her a short distance along the ground.

“AH SCREW THIS!” she blasted and threw out her hands in front of her and from the tips erupted a very bright red flash of light along with a resounding electric sound. The beam blasted into the creatures face and managed to force it to let go causing it to stumble back. Yet as the spell dissipated, the creature merely shook the spell off, now its eyes had a red pointed glow about it.

It seemed those stories were true after all.

The creature growled again, this time a red smoke billowed from its mouth. With a leap it pounced upon her, maw open wide. With her good hand and a few tendrils, Destania managed to halt its jaw from clamping down, alas one of its claws slipped by and caught the side of her face. The impact pushed her head back into a rock and sent her vision into a daze. The feeling of the creature wrapped in her tendrils was still obvious and with all of her might she roared loudly, pushing back against her attacker, eventually shoving it off to the side.

Expecting another attack, she prepared to defend herself again, holding her good arm out although it trembled from the cold and loss of blood. The creature neared again, she could tell that much. Then a bright light flashed off to the side of her vision, followed by a snap. It was quick, sudden, but repeated a number of times. The creature howled into the air and Destania could feel the pain that was inflicted upon it radiate strongly.

The sound of a blade sang in the air then struck against flesh only once, the emotions radiating from the creature... emotions, wait a second, there were so many emotions in the air now, she couldn't tell what ones were present. It was as if all of them just came crashing into her filters at the same time. Yelps and growls continued to break the air over the noise of the rain, more flashes of light, more cutting of flesh. Until only the sounds of the rain surrounded her.

What just happened?

Fanatically Destania looked around, trying to determine what halted the creatures attacks. Who else could be out there all this way in dangerous territory? Through the blood, rain and blurred vision her eyes rested on a figure as it quickly approached her.

“Hey! Are you okay there!?” called out a male voice.

“Back off! Stay away from me!” blasted Destania, the Cubi trusted no one but herself and she wasn't about to let some would-be rescuer get near her now. Not in this state. Biggs was surely going to lecture her for this one if she made it back. Holding out her arm she aimed to ward off whomever this was.

“You're wounded pretty badly, I need to heal you!”

“I said don't come near me!”

Despite her protests something grabbed onto her wrist then she felt both a warmth and a painful feeling wash over her body, causing her to shudder lightly and wince. If this was some kind of healing spell it sure was a lousy one. The onset of fatigue and tiredness started to set in, it wasn't a state she had been familiar with in a long time. The lack of emotions until just now and the loss of blood didn't help, her eyes started to close as sleep crawled over her mind.

Sleep?

That was not a process she had gone through in a long time, was the healing spell the cause?

It didn't take long until they shut completely and saw only darkness envelop her vision.

Sleep... it felt so... strange...

 

⁂

 

 

A rapid series of beeps and boops rattled at the back of Destania's mind. Although they were subtle, they thumped and thudded at the back of her head like a woodpecker on a tree, an irritating noise. What was so annoying that distrubed her slumber so? Her eyes then shot open suddenly, shocked at the very notion she had indeed fallen asleep. It was almost unthinkable, not for thousands of years did she ever drift off, even for a nap. Relaxing from the initial shock, her vision quickly focused, darting around to take stock of her location. It didn't take her long to realise that she was back in the large open chamber from that underground cavern she discovered.

How did she end up back here, wait... did that earlier voice bring her back?

Clutching down with a hand, it soon occurred to her that she was encased in a warm enclosure made up of cotton and nylon. A bed? A sleeping bag more like. What's more she felt the fabric pressing directly against her fur, all over her body. Padding around her own body with a hand she found that a number of bandages were wrapped around her, but no clothing was present.

Oh right... shapeshifting, she had been out cold and in turn lost control of her form, meaning no clothing as a result. One of the draw backs to relying on shapeshifted clothing all the time.

Wait... that meant whatever brought her back here also got to see her true self and not the gazelle disguise she was using. The shuffling of feet broke her thoughts and glancing up she saw a pair of legs moving back and forth at the tables, their back was turned to her. The circular chamber nearby gave her more cause for concern however, as the large white block of ice... was missing.

Processing her thoughts into her abilities she quickly provided herself with clothing once more to hide what remained of her dignity and slipped the bed covers off quietly. Silently she rose to her knees and got a better look of the individual present with her.

Shirt, jeans standard clothing... skin? But not fur, save for the brown crop that adorned his head. Destania was positive this Being was male, and was the source of the very strong emotions from earlier. So strong she had to triple her filters to avoid getting a headache.

Sticking around seemed like a bad idea and Destania silently slipped to one side to make her move to leave again before he noticed her.

“I wouldn't bother leaving,” declared the male with a very unusual accent. “Unless you fancy contending with that storm out there again.” he said motioning at the exit to the chamber with a hand.

So much for sneaking out, how did they know she was awake and moving? Sadly however, he was also correct, focusing her ears to the outside the storm could be heard raging even from down the corridor to the caverns. The thunder echoed down the hall with every crack. This mountain range wasn't just dangerous, it was cursed. Destania kept her eyes on the male as he moved with sluggish and half hearted motions. Some emotions were starting to break through stronger than others... sadness, depression?

"I can't believe its all gone." said the individual with a dreary murmur. "Everything feels so different, right down to its Mana. Nothing is how I remember it." He then turned to face her, seating himself against the table, there was a lost look about his expression.

Yet that was not the most immediate thing that stood out about him, he was indeed human in appearance with a fair if lightly tanned complexion. If she had to gather anything this might have been a Were in their human form, but something about his emotions, the strength of them was deceiving of that notion. A pair of deep green eyes stared at her.

“I was going to ask if you knew what had happened... but, “He glanced back to the papers behind him then to the computers nearby, a number of them had holographic screens on display much like the ones that were attached to the circular chamber, “I get the feeling you won't know either from what I have discovered.” The male pushed away from the desk and took a step towards her, Destania reacted by spanning out her wings ready to defend herself and he stopped immediately, “Woah- woah, easy I'm not going to hurt you miss-”

"...Were you the one who brought me back here?" interjected Destania. Frankly it was a dumb question as it was obvious since HE was the only other intelligent... or seemingly intelligent Being around here. In fact it would be more prudent to assume he came from the now empty chamber off to the side.

“I did,” he answered with a nod, “You were badly hurt, it was storming outside, remember?”

How could she forget, it wasn't exactly very long ago... she figured. Despite his, rescue, not everyone did such things without an ulterior motive. Although she couldn't sense any... wait, his thoughts, she couldn't sense any at all! It was like a blank canvas, did he have a mind shield? No, she couldn't detect any such magic either. What was going on here!?

*Soooo... my name is Adrian,” he introduced with a light smile, he then motioned to her, “What's your name?”

A name, he wanted her name, “De- ...Dee, my name is Dee.” replied the Cubi. Better to offer him her alias rather than her actual name, just in case. There was no telling how much he already knew. Although he didn't seem too surprised by the wings on her back and head. Come to think of it, if he had spotted her clan marking, why wasn't she already dead...?

Did he not know anything about that? Her clan marking and its relevance?

“Dee, okay then, Dee, it's a nice simple name.” smiled Adrian. He then pointed at her with a very quick brief motion, “I healed your wounds as best as I could, you had a few nasty punctures, whatever those things were, good thing they didn't hit anywhere too important.”

Destania ran a hand over the injured areas as she remembered them, no longer any pain was present and the bandages only held a light amount of blood just barely visible underneath the cloth. She slipped the one from her arm off, although the fur was still split the injury had been reduced to little more than scratches. Even the one on her face was nothing but a nick.

“Why did you come to my aid?” she asked with a suspicious stare, “What is it you wanted?”

Adrian felt the gaze pierce though him, but for what reason he didn't know, shrugging he replied, “I... don't need anything. Look you were in trouble, if I didn't catch up with you, those things probably would've had a good meal out of you.”

“Nobody steps into a dangerous area, into the unknown, faces creatures they've never seen before and not expect something for their troubles.” countered Destania folding her arms at him.

“I'm sorry...?” again Adrian shrugged scratching the back of his head, “Then, call it a matter of repayment then.” he suggested.

“Repayment?”

Adrian the directed one of his arms towards the now empty chamber nearby, “I'm guessing you are the reason I have to thank for letting me out of my... deep sleep. I sensed you as you were leaving, so I figured it had to be you.” he said before biting his upper lip apprehensively.

Did Destania sense a hint of fear in his words? The way he looked at the chamber suggested his time spent inside the ice was not necessarily a voluntary one. Her own actions were accidental and with no idea how she released him to begin with. Yet he risked himself for a complete stranger on a whim, with no clue where he was in time. Such bravado and (in her mind) stupidity never lasted long in Furrae.

"That kind of kindness will get you killed eventually," she said with a dry tone.

Adrian tilted his head a little, "I get the feeling you're not used to getting help."

No she wasn't, much of her life was spent looking out for number one. Pushing from the floor, Destania brought herself to her feet, tired of kneeling and the numbing it was brining along with it. She offered no reply to his statement, choosing to stretch out her wings briefly instead.

“You know I've been stuck inside that thing for two-hundred thousand years...” said Adrian quietly.

Destania gave a startled pause, did she just hear that number correctly, “Two hund- are you serious?” she blurted, “That would make you older than the Cubi race alone!”

“Soooo, you're a Cubi, Dee?”

_'Oh frig...'_ thought Destania realising she made a rookie mistake, “I...”

"What's a Cubi, I've never heard of the term?"

Destania blinked once slowly, instead of expecting a hostile remark, she instead found one of curiosity and bewilderment. Although his eyes didn't appear to mean any ulterior intent she did feel them tracing along her wings and head wings as if he had never seen such things before, “You... are being genuine, you do not know what a Cubi is?”

“Should I?”

Surely this was a jest, older than some of the races of Furrae with no knowledge of the world he had just stepped into. Emotions alone were not enough to gauge an individuals disposition. She probed his surface thoughts again, hoping to glean at least a little of what he was thinking to make truth of his absurd claims.

“Um, is that you doing that?” asked Adrian scratching his head with a fingertip, “Wait, are Cubi mind readers or something?” he added letting out an impressed chuckle.

Destania, however, was not as amused and fell into a defensive posture with a gasp, "Wha- Just how did you-!?" she said almost with a shout. Never before had she met someone whom took her by surprise so many times, it was becoming incredibly bothersome. Perhaps even as far to make her feel she was slipping in her own skills and needed to go back to the Academy. Perish the thought. "How are you doing that? How did you know? WHAT are you?" she demanded to know.

"Doing wha-" his reply was cut short as the Cubi suddenly marched up to him, Adrian backed up onto the table, leaning away, wondering what he did to suddenly bring about her upset stance.

Patience lost and no longer caring if he was feigning ignorance, her wings shaped into tendrils with the ends bearing her clan's trademark wing-heads and aimed at him. Now HE appeared surprised as he came face to face with both a pointing finger along with six wing-heads bearing down on him. Adrian's eyes shot over each one unable to decide which one to focus on first.

As Destania snapped loudly her tone brought his focus back to her angry expression as she blasted at him, "You said you could sense me nearby, you can tell I was reading your thoughts, and you were not fazed by what I would call three non-existant monsters!"

“Well if they were non-existant-”

“Don't split hairs! You look like a human! But from what I read Humans were inept at magic, poor fighters and just as numerous as Beings! They all died out thousands of years ago and here YOU are putting massive holes into that theory! SO WHAT ARE YOU!?" She asked with a shout.

Adrian blinked, “They... died out?”

“Unless I assume you are a WERE, 'Adrian Kino', you are the last human on Furrae.” stated Destania, her eyes glaring into his own. No longer was she going to act all surprised or timid at what was clearly an unusual Being. It was time for some answers, if this was the so called 'hidden treasure' Biggs talked about it was shaping up to be a poor find. Her wing-headed maws snapped a few times.

Slipping onto the table and using it as a seat he casually replied, “Then I guess they are still extinct...” sighed Adrian shaking his head, showing this was more news he did not want to hear. “Because I am not... human per say, nor am I this 'Were' you've referenced.” He then cleared his throat and quietly added, “Though I can change forms in a way...”

“Then what!?” blasted back Destania with no care to have him repeat his mumbling.

“I am a Creator.”

“...A what?” Destania blinked, her voice lowered back down to a more tolerable level. She had never heard of a Creator before, not even in any books- texts or theories, at least not in ones she had read. Adrian, clearly unfazed by her intimidation efforts, had started petting one of the heads staring at him. It just returned a puzzled look, mimicking their owners confusion.

“That's a pretty cool trick with your wings,” he remarked, scratching under its chin and petting the two small points that acted like the ears. Adrian pondered if they had minds of their own or were just shaped to look like a head, “Cute lil things, is this natural or a thing you do?” he asked.

With a sighed grunt Destania pulled the heads from around him, reforming them into the base shape of her back wings. Stepping away, she wasn't in any mood to humour his constant questioning, though his curiosity was refreshing... almost as if she was dealing with an eager student. Still, it bothered her Adrian was avoiding the question. Glancing back to him over her shoulder she still felt a little of the fatigue from her injuries lingering. Adrian had looked down to the table in the meantime and plucked one of the papers up, his eyes diverted down in an effort to read what little was left of it.

Letting out a silent hum in her mind Destania pondered something, she never witnessed anything or any weapons he used to fend off the creatures. And even now, there was nothing in the immediate vicinity to suggest a weapon of sorts. With a sharp snap she formed one of her wings into a javelin like tendril and shot it at Adrian with lightning speed. But before it even got close, something... invisible redirected her tendril as if it was parried to one side, the sharp object impaled itself between some of the metal framework.

The redirection felt so powerful that Destania had felt not just her tendril, but the same side of her body was struck by a force. With the tendril jammed Adrian stared at her with an unimpressed glare from over the paperwork, one of his hands was stretched out to the side a faint green aura surrounded the arm briefly before it faded from sight.

“I hope that was some kind of test,” he said, “Else you have a pretty strange way of saying thanks.”

“...What are you?”

“I told you, I'm a Creator.”

“A Creator of WHAT? That doesn't explain anything.”

“Because you didn't ask what a Creator was, you just asked what -I- was.”

That... was, admittedly correct, indeed she had not asked what a Creator was in definition, but the splitting of the point was doing little to ease her tension. Tense. Come to think of it, past all the sadness underneath, he wasn't tense. Did he really not see her as a threat at all? Adrian dropped the paper to the table and approached the stuck tendril, he grabbed part of the dented metal work and with ease pulled it to one side so the tendril would become free. A polite if pointless gesture since Destania could easily have shapeshifted it loose.

“Lets try this again, huh?” sighed Adrian shrugging his shoulders at her, “You're a Cubi, I'm a Creator. You're a woman, I'm a man. You're Dee, I'm Adrian.”

Woman, man? Such strange terms unheard of in Furrae. If Destania rightly recalled they were mostly used in reference to humans, at least the two different genders relating to them. Despite not being Human herself, he still referred to her as a 'woman'.

Adrian patted at his chest a few times, “I'm no threat to you Dee, and I can trust you to be the same can I not?” he asked but kept his distance from her in case of another 'test' was flung his way.

Trust was a word she never used lightly. The idea that someone wanted to trust her was rare. Had it been anyone else in Furrae, they would've asked her what Cubi clan she originated from first before considering such a thing. And her clan did not have the prettiest of reputations.

But he didn't, at least not yet... perhaps there was no harm in providing him with the benefit of a very large amount of doubt for now. Destania placed a hand onto her hip leaning to one side, "Do you really want to trust a Succubus? You seem unfamiliar with my race as it stands," she said calmly.

Adrian nodded his head and raised his eyebrows, "Ah see, now we're getting somewhere. A Succubus, now that term is more familiar to me, but you are far... from what our fairy tales described." he elaborated tilting his head to one side looking at her wings specifically.

"Oh?" Destania was almost curious now, if they had stories of her race back in those days then maybe there was cause for concern if they were bad ones, "Do tell?" she inquired.

"Our myths mentioned them to be naked enchantresses that devoured men's souls, and used deception to get what they wanted. The stories were a lot more varied depending on who you asked," answered Adrian, returning to the desk with the papers. He picked up a small box made of the same material as the computers and chamber.

Destania was disappointed in such a poor elaboration, she expected something with much more substance to it. Maybe he was not that well versed in these 'stories' himself. The lewd portion however made her wonder just what was on their minds when they made that crap up, With a dry enthused tone she said, "Interesting... your scholars must've been... quite imaginative." Taking a few slow steps to one side, Destania hoped to catch a glance of what he was playing with, from here it looked like nothing more than a box the size of an old VHS tape.

"Are you like that?" he asked.

 


End file.
